Reds 2015

[RugbyReg]

I agree Ignoto.

If Graham was a good coach, the team would not have regressed so badly under him. It's that simple. If he needs to build the roster around him to play the style he needs them to, then he isn't a good coach. It's that simple.

A good coach should be able to like Link did, come in to a team that finished 13th, identify their strengths and weaknesses, develop a successful style of play to suit what he has to work with and take that same team to 5th without anything more than previously rejected recruits.

If Woody was a good coach, he would have taken our strengths and worked a game plan to suit them, and potentially maybe struggled to really match it with the top teams and still finish in the top 8 despite being a top 6 team the last 4 years. He has not managed that.

he did have some key players come in though - Slipper, Chambers, Schatz, Samo. And he did lose MMM and Barnes from 2009.

He had massive changes for 2011 though with Weekes, Braid, Byrnes, Hardman, Taylor, Luafutu, Vaaulu and Kingi all moving or moved on.

I do agree with you on 2009-2010 form, but he had to make significant adjustments for 2011 and to win a premiership

 

[Train Without a Station]

I think Slipper and Schatz should be disregarded, as they are players to come through the QLD system. They reached their peak under Link. Schatz was not a key premiership player anyway - Did he even get a bench spot or did Gill? My point is this is to be expected and getting the best out of them is considered optimal.

Chambers you make a good point as he was a key player in 2010 and a new recruit. Samo as I said was a rejected recruit. We didn't poach him or throw big money. No other team was interested so Link took him and got the best out of him. Same could be said about Beau recruited on a part time contract initially and AWH. The point is these were all astute recruitments and based on their careers and the other 4 franchises' opinions of them, a significant portion of their success in Red should be attributed to Link and the rest of the team's influence.

From there, as is natural turnover occurred. But the point was he maintained the core of his team (was there any key recruits that were apart of 2011 actually?) and brought in more players to complement the style of that team.

Yes he needed to bring in more players to go from 13th to 1st - But he didn't need to poach any big name stars, he was able to identify quality "no names" and develop them into better players, to complement and build on what he inherited.

Whilst I am obviously paraphrasing here, Graham is essentially saying the top 6 team and the style of play that had got it there isn't any good and he needs to clear the deck and build again to be competitive. I maintain that if he was a quality coach, we would have been competitive this year and may have required tweaks and changes to be challengers.

It more seems we need a complete reset of the previously successful squad just to be competitive, and then more from there to be real challengers.

I think the defensive stats are a key indicator. Even if this team was not going to be title challengers, our defensive should not have become so bad. Further to that I cannot consider the loss of key attacking players through injury and departure, to be an excuse for our lack of defensive ability. Struggling to be competitive in attack against the top teams would be acceptable. Being so dismal in all facets against all is not.

 

[Jets]

I'm not blindly having faith in Graham. It's just if he is to be the coach in 2015 then it's his time to stand up and make some changes. He has everything to win and loose. If he has a bad year in 2015 I can't see any club looking to pick him up in the future.

 

[en_force_er]

I still think Graham is gone. We heard all through 2009 how Mooney would still be there in 2010 and look how that ended up.

And if Dave Taylor is thinking about a switch to union, how about someone has a chat to him tomorrow night? You know, while he's in town. It's not like League players haven't walked out on NRL contracts to switch codes before.

A 123kg No 8 that can bend the line is pretty much exactly what we're looking for.

Re: Dave Taylor.

He fancies himself a centre, not an 8.

 

[TheBigDog]

The article I read recently about Taylor and rugby union made clear he intended to stay with the NRL until the end of 2016 (the end of his contract) and re-evaluate from there. Therefore probably no need for him to be mentioned until Reds 2017 thread.

 

[I like to watch]

What could possibly go wrong for a Mungo player over a 30 month period?
Time to start designing a roster around him I reckon!

 

[Ash]

There's a few key things that worry me about the current coaching staff of the Reds.

1. S&C - it's poor, and it's been covered their issues in this regard.
2. Defence - it's regressed woefully, particularly with the apparent loss of Link's aggressive defensive line to Graham's passive one
3. Attacking structure - they have none, instead playing for "field position" after a few phases
4. Breakdown accuracy - it's not there, either they give away a load of penalties competing, or they don't compete and watch teams march up the field

If Graham and the rest of the coaching staff was right for the Reds then we wouldn't have these issues. The player roster wasn't really different that the one that qualified for the finals in the previous year, and reportedly Graham was in charge of recruiting for the 2014 season anyway so this is actually the first year of Graham's squad.

Add in the rumblings about player discontent with the coaching staff, and I fear for next year.

Would love to see what's cooked up in Graham's review of this year.

 

[Jets]

From what I hear there are still a few more current Reds players who will be saying goodbye to Ballymore at the end of the season. The sources are third hand so can't vouch for how reliable they are.

 

[Jets]

It's ok guys. This guy will save us.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/s...-party-in-toulon/story-e6frf4qu-1226981609022

 

[gel]

Reading all this doesn't particularly fill me with a massive amount of confidence.

It's actually quite disgraceful to watch it happening.

Maybe that is the plan: make it seem like a train wreck, in which case people can't stop from watching even though they don't want to.

 

[Gnostic]

Would love to see what's cooked up in Graham's review of this year.

You assume that you would ever get to read it. Have you seen the review that was done into the Wallaby set up for 2011 post RWC? I fear any Reds review, especially conducted or featuring RG will not be released in just the same way.

 

[Gnostic]

JOC (James O'Connor) can pass, kick, tackle and score points with the best of them - as big a douche as he is - we need him

I thought rugby was a team game.

 

[I like to watch]

Only winning Rugby!

 

[Tomikin]

Seriously I don't know why it would take two weeks to review the Reds season, and why the hell would you tell people, it sounds like. Ok I fucked up but we are going to stand around and take a good hard look at ourselfs (in our buggie smugglers).

Get on with it, train hard in the off season as you have a full preseason with 90 percent of your team. Come up with a game plan to your strengths..

When did a winning coach come out and say we will have a massive review and it will take 2 weeks.

Link went to the Reds, didn't say crap just got on wiht it. Jake came to Brumbies took a broom to it didn't say we will have a review from top down they just did it. Didn't say Michael Chekia come into the Tahs and say we will do a review, he just got on with it..

I want the Red's to be successful, but RG friggen annoys me.

 

[FilthRugby]

I hope Sam Greene gets a run next year.

His kicking game is sensational. Not just positional, he kicked 11/12 against Norths on the weekend.

Personally, I would hate for Ed Quirk to leave Queensland. Every team needs a ranga.

Samu Kerevi and James O'Connor would make a fucking awesome centre pairing next year.

And finally, I think 2014 as exemplified (partly) how good a coach Link McKenzie is and how fucking much the Reds miss him. I disapprove of some of the insults towards Richard Graham, I just think he would be better suited to coaching in the Northern Hemisphere, a more conservative style of play.

Coaching is hard. It always goes back to what Peter Sterling said

"There are only two types of coaches; those who've been sacked and those waiting to be sacked."

 

[RugbyReg]

Selective memory there mate. Every team does a post season review. Every non-championship winning coach/organisation generally talks about it. I recall it happening plenty of times. It's not a Graham innovation.

 

[TOCC]

Seriously I don't know why it would take two weeks to review the Reds season, and why the hell would you tell people, it sounds like. Ok I fucked up but we are going to stand around and take a good hard look at ourselfs (in our buggie smugglers).

Every successful organisation I have worked for have conducted after action reviews on major events, regardless of a positive or negative result... 2 weeks from start to go is a fairly typical time frame.

 

[Tomikin]

Every successful organisation I have worked for have conducted after action reviews on major events, regardless of a positive or negative result. 2 weeks from start to go is a fairly typical time frame.

Yeah but do you sit out and tell everyone I just think its expected not something I would announce like it's part of some sacred master plan.

 

[Tomikin]

Selective memory there mate. Every team does a post season review. Every non-championship winning coach/organisation generally talks about it. I recall it happening plenty of times. It's not a Graham innovation.

Yeah but do they plaster it over the news

 

[Gnostic]

@Tomkin it is generally trotted out to distract and put off the fans/stake holders as nothing can be done until the review is complete and the report tabled and then action plans created etc etc. By the time said actions are taken the ardour of the stake holders has cooled and their attention wandered (in this case to test match rugby) and the management which needed to take such action gets to move on and make their new plan. The review has no practical input or relevance apart from being a tool to manage.